Glory Notes: Gerges says “all pressure” on Hari, Glory TV Updates

A confident Hesdy Gerges says all the pressure will be on Badr Hari when the two rivals face off in their long awaited rematch Saturday at Glory 51.

““There is one outcome. I will be the winner. All the pressure is on him. He’s the Bad Boy. Badr Hari-he’s back and I’ve never been away. So he has something to prove,” Gerges said in an interview with Glory’s “Inside Glory 51” series on YouTube.

Hari is returning from a 15 month layoff after injuring his arm during a fight against heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven in December 2015. Before the loss, Hari only fought once in the previous two years. Gerges has been fairly active-he’s fought five times in the past two years. Gerges came up short in his last fight against fellow contender Mladen Brestovac however, losing by high kick knockout.

After the loss to Brestovac, Gerges started training at the Mousid Gym in Amsterdam under respected coach Mousid Akhamrane. Light heavyweight contender Mourad Bouzidi said Gerges has adapted well to his new training.

““Hesdy joined our team a couple of weeks ago, a couple of months ago. He’s doing great with training. He’s adapting very good to the system,” Bouzidi said.

I think it will be a great match. I think the guys both want to prove something from the last fight ten years ago. I think the audience will enjoy it. We’ll have a great fight.”

Glory 51 off ESPN News-Still Available Live on ESPN3

At last month’s Badr Hari-Hesdy Gerges press conference, it was announced that Glory 51 would be broadcast live on the ESPN News channel in the United States. It was a bit of a coup for Glory, who have been mainly relegated to live streams on the ESPN3 channel and tape delay replays days later on ESPN2. The ESPN News channel reaches millions of homes, and a live broadcast on a Saturday afternoon could have brought in some new fans.

Unfortunately, plans have changed. ESPN News appears to have bumped one of the most anticipated kickboxing fights of the year to air a rugby tournament being held in Las Vegas. It’s a kick below the belt for fight fans, but the good news is fans will still able to watch live on ESPN3. No word yet on when Glory 51 will be replayed on ESPN2 for fans who are unable to access ESPN3.

Glory New TV Deal With Fox Sports Latin America

Glory announced Wednesday that the promotion reached a deal with Fox Sports Latin America to broadcast numbered events (ie not Superfight Series or special events) in Mexico, Central America, and South American countries (excluding Brazil) into 2019. The agreement means over 50 million households in Latin America will have access to Glory events.